Ocean Heaven Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Ocean Heaven Blu-ray Movie Review

Jet Li wireless.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 6, 2012

Autism has become one of the great medical mysteries of our time. A whole range of behaviors, from low end Asperger Syndrome to fully involved autism—has fallen under the label of this little understood disorder, and the causes attributed to autism are similarly varied. Some insist that mercury in inoculations is the culprit (despite a number of recent clinical studies which tend to suggest otherwise), others point to genetic components, and a few even insist that a lack of nurturing plays a part. My own brother-in-law, a doctor who has a heavily involved autistic son and is a world- renowned autism researcher and writer, has written several best selling books detailing dietary causes (most attributed to fermented substances like yeast). But there has probably never been a cause for autism like the one posited by Sam Wong (Jet Li) in Ocean Heaven. Sam’s son Dafu is fairly heavily involved in autism, though Dafu is also strangely high functioning in a number of ways, one of which is his love of swimming. When Sam watches Dafu gliding through the water one day, Sam says, perhaps not entirely fancifully, that Dafu was supposed to have been born as a fish, but incarnated into a human body by mistake, thus causing the boy’s autism. Ocean Heaven is a heartfelt, though patently odd, little film that find Jet Li attempting to eschew his action star persona for something akin to a Chinese version of “kitchen sink” drama. Li’s Sam Wong is a widower with an adult autistic son (played by Wen Zhang) who discovers he only has a short while to live as a result of terminal liver cancer. The film details Sam’s poignant attempts to give Dafu enough life skills to make it on his own. This is a quiet, introspective piece that is most certainly at odds with almost all of Li’s former oeuvre, and in fact some may not even recognize the actor in at least the first couple of scenes, until they adjust to the fact that Li is here somewhat anemic looking, with a gaunt visage hidden behind thick glasses.

Those of us with autistic relatives have found the publicity surrounding the condition, publicity often fueled by celebrity spokespeople, to be a two edged sword. While the greater notice autism has received has led to more acceptance of those with the entire spectrum of autism disorders, it has also perhaps led to an increase in incorrect diagnoses of the condition. Perhaps more troublingly, a number of high profile “entertainment” releases have featured autism, exploiting the condition for questionable purposes. Mercury Rising and the new Keifer Sutherland television series Touch are just two relatively recent examples where autistic kids are shown to have extraordinary capabilities that are somehow posited as helping to “compensate” for their supposed disabilities. These perhaps well intentioned efforts do little to help the public at large understand the problems that autistic people face every day, and they may in fact make life more difficult for those with the condition, since some might actually expect them to act like the depictions that are shown in movies and television.

While Ocean Heaven actually is fairly restrained with regard to how it depicts Dafu, it also might be faulted for wanting to have it both ways, autism disorder wise. Dafu is shown to be something of a man-child, an “adult” boy with little understanding of the world around him who can’t make eye contact (actually a typical symptom of autism) and who has little if any verbal capacity. On the other hand, Dafu’s quirky tics and actually consistent reactions to certain cues would simultaneously place him in both the “heavily involved” and “high functioning” categories. One of the most telling signs of some forms of autism, notably Asperger Syndrome, is the inappropriate reading of social cues, but Dafu, while unpredictable at times, is shown to have fairly “normal” reactions to things, including atypical things (in the insular world of autism) like smiling when hearing his father’s voice. But overall Ocean Heaven does an admirable job of neither exploiting autism nor underestimating the challenges parents of autistic children face, and the film in fact walks a rather delicate tightrope with amazing facility, at least most of the time.

Tonally Ocean Heaven gets it about right, working up to a three hankie finale that again may not be credible, at least for those with experience with heavily involved autistic kids, but which gives something akin to a happy ending after a lot of turmoil and angst. One glaring tonal difference is the film’s opening sequence, which is actually kind of horrifying in retrospect, even as it’s inordinately shocking as it plays out. Without spoiling the content of the sequence, it is so disturbing, and then is moved on from without much further mention, that it’s almost as if it belongs in another film. Aside from that misstep, writer-director Xue Xiaolu, who herself has a long personal history with kids with any number of disabilities, does a good job at crafting an intimate, heartfelt drama that really offers a major showcase for Jet Li at an interesting crossroads in his career. Aging action stars don’t always have viable career opportunities once they reach a certain age, but Li proves himself an extremely capable dramatic actor in Ocean Heaven, and his Sam Wong becomes, perhaps ironically, one of Li’s most heroic characters.

Ocean Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ocean Heaven is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This film has been significantly filtered in its digital intermediate stage, with blues being pushed to the point of near blooming at times. This aspect, which obviously plays on the watery ambience of the entire film, sometimes robs the film of sufficient contrast, and the image assumes a soft, fuzzy look with a lack of fine detail. The film also has fairly noticeable crush in several darkly lit scenes, where shadow detail is negligible and foreground objects pretty much disappear into the murky background. With these caveats aside, the rest of the news is largely positive. While Ocean Heaven never fully attains a consistent level of sharpness and clarity that many expect from contemporary films, there is well above average detail in the vast majority of shots (especially once the blue filtering settles down several minutes into the film), and the overall image has nice natural looking depth and texture. This was not a hugely budgeted feature, and that lack of resources may have played into some of the filming choices here.

Ocean Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ocean Heaven's two lossless DTS-HD Master Audio tracks, one in 2.0 and the other in 5.1, are fine, excellently rendered affairs that nonetheless never really rise to a "wow" factor simply by dint of the fact that this is a quiet, intimate, dialogue driven film. The surround track does significantly open up the soundfield in several key sequences, notably the opening segment in the rowboat and, later, a sequence that takes place in a circus. Both of these tracks offer excellent fidelity and decent, if subdued, dynamic range, but there's simply nothing here that offers huge opportunities for blockbuster surround activity. This is an intentionally quiet, mellow soundtrack that receives care and nuance on both of these DTS-HD Master Audio tracks, and with proper expectations, listeners should be very well pleased with either of the options on this Blu-ray.

Ocean Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (SD; 11:07) explores director Xue Xiaolu's personal experience with special needs children and their families and how that informed her work on Ocean Heaven.
• Original Teaser (SD; 00:38)
• Trailer (HD; 2:01)

Ocean Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jet Li fans may be completely thrown for a loop when the pop Ocean Heaven in their Blu-ray player, for this is unlike anything the iconic martial arts star has done before. The film is a mixed bag, with some truly touching moments probably outweighing the fanciful depiction of an autistic kid who is both high functioning and severely disabled. Li brings a certain nobility and stoicism to the role of the put upon father, and Wen Zhang is sweet and affecting as Dafu. Writer-director Xue Xiaolu is obviously working from her heart here, and that brings a visceral emotional tenor to the film that is undeniably effective. The Blu-ray itself offers a somewhat soft looking image and understated sound, along with a lack of compelling supplements, but for those who have been touched (no pun intended, considering the new Sutherland series) by autism, or for Li fans curious about what the action star can do with a straight dramatic role, Ocean Heaven is Recommended.